Have you ever 03.31.17

                Before you stop reading this enlightening article, I would like to ask a couple simple questions. When was the last time you had a cinnamon bun? Did you put it in the microwave for a few seconds to get it all warm and tasty? Was that icing dripping off the side of the bun? When you tried to eat a piece did it get all over your fingers? Did you lick the icing off your fingers?

                If I were to answer those questions I would say, “Today, yes, yes, yes and yes.”

                Even though no one asked, I did help the grounds manager in the yard work yesterday, and I am not too tired today. The yard work is complete and our efforts can be seem in the manicured yard.

May your fingers be covered in sweet icing!

Don Ford

                 

New Beginnings 03.30.17

                This is an informational posting.

                We are embarking on two new beginnings. First, the month of April begins this Saturday. April first is known to be April fool’s day, be wary.  Second, I am posting a story I wrote a year or two ago, but I never presented it to anyone. I am beginning that process today.  

                I intend to post the preface first and then a chapter at a time. Read it if you like and if not that is ok too. I do suggest for those who read the story, one should read the entire story.

                The story is of course fiction, but if it turned out to be true, it would not change anything, it would however explain things. 

                The blog address will be:   www.the-beginning-now.blogspot.com  

                The preface is posted.

                I went for a short walk this morning in the freezing cold. It was 52 degrees and I almost froze. It is now warming up so, I have been instructed to get outside and help the grounds manager with the yard.

                Possibly the work will not be too intense, for a senior retired person.

May your day be safe and warm!

Don Ford

               

Phony 03.29.17

                Phony, what does that word mean, and why is it the title of this soon to be well written, article?

                It could mean deceptive or not real. 

                As I am sure at least one reader remembers, I did have a windows phone, and I purchased an android phone assuming it could do some things the old windows phone could not do. I used the android phone for a week and decided it did not do what I expected, and it did not do a couple things the window phone would do.

                The Android not meeting my expectations, I decided to switch back to the old windows phone. It only took a couple hours for me to decide that I did like the controls on the android over the windows. And for some reason the windows phone had also stopped allowing me to send or receive a photo with a text message.

                I contacted my provider and they down loaded updates to my phone. Now the Android seems to be doing all the things I had originally expected. I have not yet tried to get it to project to the Ford’s Chevy, but I will try that today. Yes, the android is supposed to be able to project things to the screen in the pickup truck. Why does that seem to be so farfetched to you?

                Originally, I was wanting to comment on the words phone and phony, but my focus has changed.

                As I was putting this short article together, it reminded me of a story I had written. Although the story did not refer to smart phones it did comment on the government tracking everything a person would do, and I do mean everything. The story also had information about the mark of the beast (666).

                Smart phones and other so called smart devices, along with, “Robots”, that do work for us, are the beginning of the end. The odd thing about this is, humanity is willingly heading into to the end, believing it will make their lives better.     

                Wow, that seemed to get a little serious to me. Let’s lighten it up a little. The bright side of this is, people who live without all the modern devices like computers, cars, electricity and so on will be the last to be affected by the “Technical Revolution.” There is a bright side to every story!

May your day be filled with non-technology!

Don Ford 

                   One may consider part of this article to be fiction, I don’t!

A Blue Day 03.27.17

                We have all had them, you know, one of those days when everything seems blue. Why is it that we say he /she is so down and blue? Why does blue represent being unhappy?

                Our blue day was very happy. I will attempt to pick a couple photos that show blue as being nice and happy. First we see part of the field next to the Spring Valley School, blue bonnets everywhere.

 

                I assume many of you know how to make a snow angel, you know, a person lays down in the snow and moves his arms and legs to make what appears to be an angel. There was an air show in Waco last week and the Blue Angels were there. I hear it was one heck of a show! Being on a fixed income, I could not attend!

                We would like to show you a photo of a recent attempt at a Blue Angel. Click on a photo to enjoy!

                My spouse of soon to be 48 years (April 5^th) was taking photos of the grandees, Alex and Gabi, as I was sneaking a photo or two of her.

 

                Getting these photos has become an annual event. I must say, the blue bonnets had a very nice aroma.

 

                Yes the rabbit is real, it was the Easter Bunny checking out the Blue Bonnets.

May you have a happy Blue Day!

Don Ford

Don's most excellent ride 03.23.17

                The title says I went on an excellent ride but it does not come close to providing you with a mental picture of the very beautiful scenery that was observed by yours truly, during said ride.

                As always, I am attempting to provide information to my readers. 

                If I weren’t on a fixed income, I could afford a small camera to carry on these rides, which would allow me to provide visual information as to the scenery, in Texas, on the back roads.

 

                Above we see the group of seven that were in this ride. I should note that not all seven completed the 335 mile ride, as some had other obligations (they wimped out)! In the photo from left to right are, Ray, Nick, Sam and Wayne, Click to enlarge photo.

                As anyone who has been in Texas during the early spring months knows, the Blue Bonnets, along with Indian Paintbrush, are in full bloom. Riding along the back roads one could smell the wonderful aroma of the Blue bonnets, and an occasional road killed skunk! There were more flowers than dead skunks.

 

                The above photo was taken during an unscheduled rest period as we waited for someone in a lead truck to escort us through the construction area. This is at the Colorado River and we had to ride about two miles on gravel, which was being placed as a base layer for the soon to be paved road. Before that one critic asks, yes there was a Harley in the group! Click to enlarge.

                The ride began at 8:30 and ceased at 4:30 for a total of 335 miles as previously stated. I was tired and my posterior was even more tired!

Changing the subject:

                The other afternoon my present spouse and I noticed that Charlie was laying in the back yard as if he had something in his paws. As we observed we learned that he did not have anything captured at that time, although there were two Robins removing bugs from the Ford Homestead yard. As we continued to observe, one of the robins was a safe distance away from the cat, but the other kept hopping around fairly close to Charley. We were not sure why one bird was acting brave, basically tempting the cat to attack, but I kind of assume, it may have been a male showing off to the female!

                We did not see Charley go for the bird.

                Next day as I was preparing to mow the front yard, I was picking up small sticks prior to the actual cutting of the grass. I found a dead Robin lying next to the pecan tree. Had Charlie been successful?

                That evening about the 5 o’clock hour, I had assumed my usual sitting position in the old Ford’s rocker. As I sat there pondering life, I noticed a single Robin land in the pecan tree. This bird looked at me as if there had been a terrible loss in its life. Was this the partner of the dead Robin, I didn’t know. I took a photo and you may be able to determine whether this single Bird was lonely, looking for its mate! 

 

                Why are pecan trees the last to get leaves?  Click to enlarge.

Lonely birds shouldn’t wait for others, 

They should make a move to be a friend!

                                                That applies to people also!

Don Ford

What? 03.22.17

                There's a commercial on TV about razors. They have firefighters telling about incidents that happened to them (aka close calls). I believe one fell off a second-story fire escape and one of them had a roof fall in on him. These so called, “close calls”, were not as close as the shave one can get from this razor.

            My comment to those firefighters is, “use better judgement and don’t put yourself in an unsafe situation”!

            As an ex-volunteer fire fighter, we all knew that our safety (and by our safety I mean, each member of our team) must be at the top of our priority. If we were injured we would not be able to help others. We had to keep our safety as top priority so we could help others.

            The chiefs must evaluate situations and make decisions that will keep the fire fighter safe, and a well-trained fire fighter will also evaluate the situation with safety in mind.

                All first responder’s Police, Fire, EMS and others, must keep their safety at the forefront of their thoughts.

                Comparing a close shave of a razor to close calls of first responders did catch my attention, and can we say upset the Ford in me!

                I think I was venting. Maybe too much TV for me!

Your safety first please!

Don Ford

Dear Diary 03.20.17

                Dear diary, I was able to wash the Ford’s Chevy yesterday under the shade of one of the mighty oak trees in the back yard. (Ok the tree is not an oak, but I don’t know what kind of tree it is so I used the name oak.)  I was able to remove all the pollen from the vehicle and now, instead of being a green / yellow color, it is white again!

 

                Look at the vehicle, not the trash and recycle cans or the bag of leaves on the drive!

                Comment: this morning I woke to fine the Ford’s Chevy again coated in pollen. L

                I received a Thank You from a secret admirer. As some of you may know, I had repaired the lights on the Ford’s angel. My present spouse helped me place it in a prominent location (As I did not want to take a chance of damaging the lighting by moving the almost 7 foot tall angel, alone) against the tree. See photo, yes it is blurry.

 

                The angel lit up that night, brightening the neighborhood, and evidently making someone extremely happy. The next day as my first wife and I were teaming up on moving the flowers from the Ford’s Green House back to their outside locations, all the time hoping that we would not get a serious freeze, their appeared on one of the stepping stones in the front yard, a thank you card and a small wooden angel.

How did it get there? Who put it there? Was it put there by a person or was it a sign from above, that we had received a Thank You from On High?  It is a mystery that may never be solved. Photo to follow.

 

                Sometimes odd gestures impress others! The little wooden angel and the card is appreciated.

Appreciated, for the little things!

Don Ford

Kneeling 03.17.17

                Am I writing about kneeling to some authority, or kneeling in a religious setting? Well, you will soon have an understanding of the title.

                As I set here in agony, I am unsure that it wasn’t both, kneeling to an authority and at the same time a religious setting. That’s odd, no one has a question! None of you want to know why I am in agony! Some friends!

                This morning in the shower, I was washing my hair and face as I do every morning. One thing I do daily is to carefully wash the areas around my eyes with soap, in an effort to get rid of as much oil as possible. My eye doctor suggested baby shampoo as it does not irritate one’s eyes. I have found regular soap cleans better than baby shampoo, so I use regular soap.

                Today I somehow got soap in my left eye, and I thought I was going to die. I must have pushed my eye lid open allowing the soap in, and now (3 hours later) my eye feels as if I have something in it. It is as if I scratched the eye. That is my agony.    What do you mean, “Who cares”! You could, feel sorry for me!

            Kneeling, is the title and I will now attempt to explain to all of you, including that person (a liberal) who doesn’t care that I am in agony.

                The black berries and one of the rose bush flower beds had weeds in them, and I needed to extricate the weeds. I was on my knees for a while bowing to a greater authority, my spouse of soon to be 48 years (April 5^th will be 48 years if you want to get a gift).

                While I was there I may have been praying to another higher authority asking for help in this manual labor. Now you should understand that my kneeling was to an earthly authority, while at the same time a religious setting. There are black berry blooms, berries to follow soon. Photos of the black berry bed to follow. 

  

Praying helps!

Don Ford

When is Easter 03.16.17

                I am not privileged to know the actual date of Easter, but I did see something yesterday that caused me to think about this coming event. The following photo has two distinguishing objects.

First, there is a bunny rabbit (could be the Easter Bunny) cooking burgers!

Second, that bright red rose that is just opening!

                                               

                An Easter Bunny cooking burgers is more interesting to me, than a Bunny hiding boiled eggs!

My first wife has told me (not a request) to get the Easter decorations from the shed. I know Easter is coming.

Get outside and enjoy the…!

Don Ford

What a start 03.15.17

                You know it is always worse when it happens at the start rather than the end. If it happened at the end it would be on your mind for a short period of time.

                It happened like this.

                I cheerfully popped out of bed, a couple minutes earlier than normal. I strolled into the Jon where Charlie was waiting for me. Charlie likes to drink water from my first wife’s sink. As I reached for the faucet my arm came in contact with a glass plate, or something made of glass hanging on the wall. It fell and broke in at least 1000 pieces. I carefully cleaned up the broken glass, all the time needing my first cup of coffee. That is how it all started.

                A couple cups of coffee and an equal number of hours later, I jumped into the Ford’s Chevy to run a couple errands. I wanted to go to the post office, the McDonalds for a coffee and also the cleaners to drop off some clothes. I decided to head for the coffee first, then the cleaners and finally the post office which would make the best use of time. As I left the Ford Homestead I noticed that the radio was not playing. I tried everything but it would not work. I could not get any sound and could not change channels. My phone would not work through the blue tooth. Not good, I will probably need to go to the Chevy House for repair.

                Try as I may, I could not get the radio to work. I picked up my coffee and decided to go to the Chevy house for some repairs. That meant I would change my route and head to the post office first, then hit the cleaners on my way to the repair shop.

                After visiting the post office I got back into the pickup. I started the motor and surprise the radio and blue tooth now works. That was good, but since I am not going to the repair shop I would not pass by the cleaners. Now I had to drive back to the cleaners, out of route. Waste of time and gas. 

                While at the cleaners, I decided to venture into Waco and possibly purchase an item. I pulled in to a parking lot across from the cleaners to see if I had my gift card. There it was, I removed it from my billfold and dropped it. It went somewhere between the seat and consul. I could not see it so I had to get out of the vehicle, open the back door and I found it part way under the seat. I thought, “This day is not going well!”

                I got back in the vehicle and was trying to get situated when, I knocked my sun glasses off onto the floor on the passenger side. I thought, “What else?”         Then I started laughing!    

                Sometimes things go wrong, big deal!

If that’s the worst thing that happens, it isn’t too bad!

Don Ford

Follow up Winter is back 03.14.17

                I was able to mow the Homestead lawns at least as good as the grounds Manager could have! There are two photos showing the completed work which I did, in this winter weather!

 

 

                I am glad the sun was shining, which helped fend off the cold temperatures.

May your days be filled with green grass!

Don Ford

Winter is back 03.14.17

                All the nice warm weather has passed and we are now back to normal winter time weather. It is terribly cold at night and unpleasantly cold during the day, high 30s at night mid 60s in the day. 

                Even though the weather is foreboding, I will attempt to go outside later today and attempt to manicure The Ford Homestead’s lawns. The numerous acres will take most of the afternoon and may go into the early evening hours. Don’t ask where the grounds manager is, he is on vacation in the northern states, enjoying the snow fall.

                I have purchased a new so called smart phone, this one is not a windows phone but I will keep the windows phone as a backup. I had been considering a new phone for a while and this past Sunday I found it on sale for $20 less. I bought it. I thought I could just take the sims card from the old phone and put it in the new phone like I did last time. The sims card on this new phone is smaller (^micro) so I had to call my provider and they are sending me a new card. I can’t get it to connect to the home Wi-Fi, maybe it will, after I get the new sims card.

                I will now need to learn something new. You know the old saying “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks”, I am glad I am not a dog!

                My old phone will not project to my screen in the Fords Chevy and the old phone will not work with my drone. I hope this change will not be too difficult for a senior citizen!

                I will try to provide info on the lawn work if I can still type after all that work.

                Maybe the photo below will warm your day, it was taken two days before winter returned.

 

May your spring, stay sprung!

Don Ford

Fixed income 03.10.17

                I ordered one and waited a week to get it. During that week I found I could have purchased the same item at the local Wally world for about the same price.

                I took it home and it had problems. After some time attempting to get it to run properly I gave up.

                I called and asked to return it and they said bring it back. I took it back and received a new unit.

                The new unit runs as expected. I trimmed the weeds from the back yard. I am happy again and only slightly over our budget.

                Now I need to work in the ditch, some of those weeds are over knee high.

Hope your weekend is enjoyable!

Don Ford

Lunch 03.09.17

                A friend and I crawled onto our old wings (aka gold wings) and headed out to the Bunk House for lunch. If we were to take the direct route the ride would have been about 60 miles round trip. We didn’t take the direct route and ended up riding about 150 miles round trip.

                The first part of the trip was nice but it was cloudy. I seem to enjoy some sun shine when I ride. We arrived at the bunk house about 12:30 and there were many people there. I guess it may have been their lunch rush. As we pulled onto the parking lot there was 4 bikes leaving. That was a good thing as it provided us with some parking spaces near the building. You know, old bikers don’t want to walk too far, even when it is to eat.

                Entering the building we were greeted by the lady who takes your order. When she saw us she said, “not you again”. That set the tone for the entire lunch period. Before you ask, this lady is always kidding with the customers. We ask for our usual discount but we were told that discount is only on Thursday. I asked to see the manager and she told us the same thing. I explained that we had to ride today, cause it was going to rain tomorrow.  She said sorry.

                Feelings hurt, we ordered our food, found a table and sat down.

                As usual the food was good and the conversation was lively.

                Our ride home was brighter and I believe more fun as the sky was clear and the sun was shining.

May you get a discount for lunch!

Don Ford

Front or Back 03.07.17

                As I was motivating over the hill, I saw Maybelline in a Coupe Deville…            actually I was enjoying my morning meditative walk when I saw, “The front”. You may be right, sometimes it is better to see the back of something or someone, rather than the front. Truth is, we don’t always have a choice.

                This morning’s stroll started out as usual, but ended up oddly nice. I was in my last lap of my strenuous exercise program, when I noticed the front. I reached for my somewhat smart phone to get an initial photo. Click on the photo for a thrill!

 

                This is a cold front, which was predicted to roll through Hewitt during my morning walk. The prognosticators got this one right. At this point the wind had not begun to blow and the temperature had not begun to drop. I turned and continued walking.

                It was less than a minute, when the wind began to blow and the temperature began to drop.

 

I had earlier considered that the cold front could be a good thing, as I could cool down prior to reentering the Ford Homestead. Yes I do perspire profusely during my exercise program, and a cold front would feel good. I did not expect the light drizzle that came with the drop in temperature and heavy winds.

                I cooled down completely, as I completed my morning meditative experience.

Enjoy change, it can be good!

Don Ford

Spout it out and in 03.06.17

                It was early in March 2017, when it was discovered that the spray nozzle at the Ford Homesteads kitchen sink had a problem. The problem we discovered, was a slight leak in the spray nozzle, which cause extreme fear that the drip of water might make it down under the sink causing a wet mess.

                I ordered a spray nozzle from my former employer. The nozzle was said to work with most faucets including Delta, key word here is, “Most”.

                The day come for me to replace said sprayer. Unadvisedly, I had eaten my lunch (leftovers from the last road killed possum) and then started immediately on the replacement. First I had to remove (what seemed to be) thousands of items from under the sink. I then was able to contort my senior body under the kitchen sink to see where the sprayer connected. I used my somewhat smart phone, to take photos of where the sprayer hose connected to the water supply. I then sent the photos to my senior PC so I could see them clearly.

 

                Above, one sees what I had to deal with under the sink. The white plastic connection is where the sprayer connects to the water source. How does one get it off?

(I learned later that the white plastic connector just pushed onto the fitting of the copper tube).

                I tried several times and was not able to get it loose. Also, every time I crawled under that sink my stomach began to feel yucky. I decided that I would need a little assistance with this project, and that is when I called for a professional, my youngest son David.

                Dave crawled under the sink, somewhat easier than I did, but he was also unable to disconnect the plastic fitting.

                The decision was made to remove the entire faucet, making it easier to work with the plastic connection. Once we had the entire faucet out, we were able to remove the plastic connection from the faucet. The connection on the Delta faucet was not compatible with the new sprayer connection ($11.68 wasted).

                We then headed for the Home Depot to purchase an entire new faucet. We learned that we probably knew more about the faucets than those who worked there. I asked one question, “Is that Delta faucet made of metal or plastic”. The first fellow said, he didn’t know if they were plastic or not. He looked around and said, this fellow knows all about these faucets. We inquired of the second employee the same question, and he said, “I think they are all made of plastic”. I responded with, “No they are not”!

                I then withdrew one of my two knives from my pocket and began to cut open a carton which had the Delta faucet I was looking at. The faucet was metal, we showed it to the fellow who thought they were all plastic.

                The faucet purchased, we returned to the Homestead for installation. David did most, I mean all of the work (thank goodness) and we had both a new sprayer along with a new faucet.  Thanks David!

  

                Later in the day I was able to spread the fire ant killer and then the fertilizer on the front and back yards.

                As you may be able to see, this entire edition of, “news from the Ford Homestead”, has been about work. I want to end this fantastic article with a little positive insight. Two photos taken while I was spreading the fertilizer and fire ant killer.  Click to enlarge.

 

 









May your spring be filled with flowers!

Don Ford

All-knowing 03.03.17

                The title of this essay, could be more of a question, than a statement. One may ask, “Is the Donald (me) really all knowing”? I will answer that question before I receive a comment from that one person, who loves to aggravate me. I am not all knowing, it just seems that way to those who know me.

                Now let’s get real for a moment. I believe, each of us have been given a certain amount of knowledge and abilities. How each person uses their knowledge and abilities is up to them. To expand on that statement; “Each of us also have the option to improve”! 

                Those statements lead us to the rest of this dissertation.

                The other day I noticed the freezer drawer (located at the bottom of the refrigerator in the Fords Garage) was not completely closed, it was about one inch away from being shut. I immediately tried to push it closed but to no avail. I then surveyed the situation and determined that the ice maker (which was no longer in use) had somehow became broken. Part of the ice maker was hanging down, keeping the inner drawer from closing which kept the entire lower drawer from closing.

                I was able to move the broken part enough to allow the drawer to shut, a temporary fix.

                To fix this unit (notice I did not say repair), I would need to remove all the frozen foods from the upper and lower drawer. Sounds simple, but there was a few things that needed to be done prior to working on the unit. I would need to go to the shed, remove the mower, tiller, two pole saws, a ladder, a leaf blower, and three containers of decorations which would give me access to the ice chest. I would then need to open the ice chest and remove two helmets and other items that are stored in the ice chest.

                Next I removed the frozen items from the freezer drawers, placing them in the cooler.

                At this point I should be able to remove the drawers making enough room for me to have access to the broken ice maker. I tried several times and could not remove the upper drawer as there was a tray attached to the door (later I learned it was called a tilting pocket). Try as I may I could not get this tilting pocket off the door.

                At this point I used some of the God given knowledge I have, and I retrieved the book for this refrigerator. The book stated grasp the two ends of the pocket and pull up firmly. I tried this a couple times and I was afraid I was going to break the attachments. I called on my first wife, requiring her to read the instructions. She now understands that force is needed. If I break it maybe she will not blame me.

                My first wife took hold of the pocket’s end and pulled without fear of breaking the unit. It came off! She is a good assistant!

                I was then able to remove the upper drawer. I attempted to remove the lower drawer but there wasn’t enough room. Being the mechanical wizard that I am, and with some observation, I decided to open the two doors (aka French doors) to the refrigerator. This gave me the needed room (an extra 4 inches) to extricate the lower drawer.

                The cover to the ice maker has two screws, which when removed gave me total access to the damaged ice maker. I was able to disconnect the ice maker from the freezer and replace the cover.

                At this point I provided the freezer with an in-depth cleaning.

                Proud of my accomplishments, I began to reverse engineer the entire process, with the exception of replacing the broken ice maker, as it went into the trash can.

                As I replaced all the frozen items, I was able to make extra room due to my orderly arrangement of the contents.

Use and expand your knowledge and abilities!

Don Ford